What ‘Economics-only’ Republicans don’t understand

A terrific article by Selwyn Duke posted on American Thinker with the title “What Libertarians Misunderstand” is a must read. For years this column has worked on conveying the easy-to-understand reality that behavior is civilization. You can’t have a healthy economy and an unhealthy culture. Those who would like to pretend the “social issues” aren’t important are fooling themselves.

“I will start with the one thing that characterizes libertarians as much as anything else: a misunderstanding about the nature of law. To illustrate the point, consider the commentary of ‘End the Fed,’ a ‘devout libertarian’ who posted under my first piece. He wrote,

I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on whether people should smoke crack or have abortions. My choice is drug free. My choice is not to have abortions. And if you want to do those things, I won’t criticize or judge you…

OK, now imagine if I said,

I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on whether people should commit murder or rape. My choice is to respect life. My choice is not to commit rape. And if you want to do those things, I won’t criticize or judge you…

Understand that all I did was take End the Fed’s reasoning to its logical conclusion. After all, what do murder, rape, and abortion have in common? They are all moral matters — as is the stuff of all legitimate laws.”

Duke also writes, “If a law is not underpinned by a valid moral principle, it is not a just law. Without morality, laws can be based on nothing but air.”

“So here is how you fall into the philosophical trap that has ensnared virtually all libertarians (and many others):

Step 1 – Believe in a mythical separation of morality and state.

Step 2 – Accept the laws you agree with and believe necessary, not realizing they’re an imposition of morality.

Step 3 – Turn around and oppose laws you disagree with, not on the basis that the values they reflect are wrong or are not the government’s domain, but simply because they’re an ‘imposition of morality.'”

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“If by the liberty of the press were understood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please: But if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it.” —Benjamin Franklin (1789)